How can hurricane Ian go from hurricane, to tropical storm, and now back to hurricane?

Question

How can hurricane Ian go from hurricane, to tropical storm, and now back to hurricane?

In: 10

Answer 1

Hurricanes gain power when they move over warm water and lose power when they cross over land or cold oceans.

Ian grew rapidly when it passed into the Gulf of Mexico and started sucking up all that bathwater-warm energy.

Then it passed over land and spent all that energy tossing boats through peoples front doors in Ft Myers.

Eventually it cleared Florida entirely and wandered out over the Atlantic again, where it can start sucking up energy from warm oceans again.